IBM revenue slumps for fourth consecutive quarter

Big Blue continues to talk up cloud and software capabilities as traditional business stalls

IBM has followed up its stuttering Q1 with a fourth consecutive quarter of revenue decline.

Sales for the three-month period ending 30 June 2019 declined 4.2 per cent year on year, with IBM's systems division taking the largest income drop at 19.5 per cent.

Global Business Services, along with Cloud and Cognitive Software, were the only two of IBM's six units to report an increase in sales.

Revenue generated from Cloud and Cognitive Software was up 3.2 per cent year on year, with Global Business Services up 0.5 per cent.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty said that the results are proof of IBM's continuing transition away from its legacy hardware business and towards emerging technologies.

"In the second quarter, we continued to grow in the high-value areas of the business, led by a strong performance across our Cloud and Cognitive Software segment," she said.

"With the completion of our acquisition of Red Hat, we will provide the only true open hybrid multicloud platform in the industry, strengthening our leadership position and uniquely helping clients to succeed in chapter two of their digital reinventions."

The figures published by IBM do not include any contributions from Red Hat, which will continue to operate as a separate business.

The vendor said that it will release Red Hat-specific numbers in August.

IBM said that, despite the overall revenue decline, gross profit margin rose 100 basis points - which it said is the largest year-on-year increase the vendor has seen in over five years.

IBM's share price yo-yoed in after-hours trading, rising as much as 4.6 per cent and falling as much as 5.3 per cent.